Teresa Martin: a new reality for tech in 2018?

Happy 2018! Yes, I know I recently wrote that tech was not shiny and new … but the year is, so that means we get to put on our happy glasses and look at the tech trends that might be coming our way.

We’ve been hearing this song for several years, but with Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook offering development platforms and a plethora of third-party development tools in the mix, it looks as if 2018 is the year Augmented Reality and its cousin, Virtual Reality, start making an appearance for real.

Augmented reality overlays data on top of the world around us. It has uses as varied as entertainment, marketing and industrial processes. As unglamorous as they may be, I’m betting on industrial processes as the places we’ll see this take off (or, more likely, where it will happen but few of us will notice).

For the past two years, Microsoft and Volvo have experimented with augmented reality as part of the automotive design and assembly processes, layering concepts or schematics over real-life objects. Lockheed Martin has taken a similar approach, using augmented reality to overlay renderings of cables, parts, part numbers and the like over components to help technicians more accurately build complex parts.

In spring 2017, Harvard Business Review reported on GE’s use of augmented reality for wiring wind turbines. The company found that technicians doing the assembly with augmented reality line-of-site instructions improved the technician’s performance 34 percent on its first use. This is not the kind of sizzle that gets buzz on the pop culture street, but it is the kind of practical application that will get augmented reality deployed even more widely in 2018.

We’ll see lots of silly augmented reality and virtual reality uses too. Games. Animations. Eye candy. We’ve already seen experiments with augmented reality, VR and immersive storytelling, where you can experience the impact of Hurricane Sandy, for example ("Frontline"), or explore the world’s tiniest engraving on the head of a pin (The New York Times). The marketing types salivate over the possibilities of adding augmented reality in retail environments to entice you to buy now or to embed you into a branded experience.

Will 2018 be the year we redefine reality?

The ever-present digital tendrils will curl further into our daily lives in 2018. The novelty of the virtual/personal assistant will change to a commonplace occurrence, making Alexa and Siri and Hey Google and Cortana household members, maybe even beloved ones. These tendrils will integrate functions of our homes, our travels and our daily lives in ways at once both convenient and conveniently marketable.

Drones will buzz ever more into our lives, as entertainment and workhorse. As our worries about privacy loss continue their decadeslong fall, drones will become an accepted part of society. Will drone drag racing become the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot game of 2018? Will drone delivery finally become reality? Will next holiday Amazon deliveries be delivered down your chimney direct to your tree courtesy of an aerial robotic feat?

On a sad note, we’ll begin to see the impact of an Internet set to serve the highest bidder. Large companies that control delivery channel and content will ensure priority to their products first. Or, delivery channel owners with a specific worldview will triage content from preferred sources, sending alternative views to the slow lane. Rural areas and inner cities will see higher costs and less service. Local municipalities will have to redouble the fight to offer connectivity services to their own communities. Wireless options may multiple and the cord-cutting we’ve been hearing so much about might even be the one to your wired bandwidth.

We’ll also see a lot more about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Right now, we’re in a bubble — this could be the "tulip mania" of 2018 or it could be the greatest investment you ever missed. It’s hard to call how it will fall, but either way it will be a tech story in 2018.

The last big 2018 story category will be transportation. Whether it is big rigs moving freight or short passenger hops, the move toward autonomous vehicles will continue. As the millennial generation and its younger siblings show continual disinterest in the act of driving, the allure of autonomous vehicles will only get stronger. On the commercial hauling side of the scale, the economic and safety arguments grow more compelling. Between the two, look for more street tests in 2018 — and maybe even the first commercial route of either cargo or consumers.

The darkness of 2017 carries over into 2018, tainting the coolness factor of the new with a low level of fear for its misuse. The technology will happen. What emerges is largely beyond our control … but the darkness? We have some say in that — so if we can take one mantra into 2018 let it be a strength and conviction that we will choose our technology wisely, use it well, and remember that we have the power to control it. Happy 2018!

— Teresa Martin lives, breathes and writes about the intersection of technology, business and humanity. Read more of her recent columns at www.capecodtimes.com/teresamartin.

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